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Opening Reception: Saturday, March 1st 2008, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Pomegranate Gallery is pleased to present Piece Process: Every Wall shall Fall, on exhibit from March 1st through March 29th 2008. These artists, both Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Arab, men and women, are committed to exhibiting together in order to explore the Israel-Palestine conflict and the possibility of peace.
“Exhibiting in the US, we engage this country’s deeply inequitable involvement in the conflict and our personal ties to it. We view the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian territories as one of the greatest obstacle to peace. Devastating to the Palestinian people through economic and cultural repression, as well as through the brutalization of Palestinian civilians; this Occupation also leads to increasing insecurity for Israelis as well as the moral and social erosion of Israeli society. We share the belief that all co-existence must be based on the principles of human rights and equality.
The word piece emerged from the recognition that an art exhibit can neither resuscitate the stalled “peace process” nor turn back the clock on the recent and ongoing wars in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. Our work is a piece of something larger—a multifaceted effort to bear witness, and alter the cycle of violence and oppression. Our goal is to demonstrate integrity and attentiveness in dialogue. Together, we create an artistic space, which offers a multiplicity of voices that raises itself beyond hate and ignorance, challenges the stereotyped and unexamined images of conflict, and rejects the demands for unquestioned group loyalty.
Our work speaks to the violence of Palestinian /Israeli shared space and history. It begins from the fact of exile and Diaspora, the ambiguous identities that result, and our need to address the not so distant tragedies that bind us together. Piece Process underlines the internal processes we undergo; it strengthens our artistic voices, and shows our personal narratives as inextricably intertwined. The diverse work of these artists (through varied media and visual vocabularies) allows Piece Process to bring about, in the spectator’s mind, a broader conceptualization of humans in situations of conflict and a deeper understanding of coexistence.
To challenge and critique assumptions, to reveal and inaugurate shared possibilities: a simple goal, but one that involves risk, both psychological and social. Our exhibitions break an unspoken taboo against projects that publicly declare their shared Israeli/Palestinian, Arab/Jewish character. Our exhibitions are a call for awareness and deeper involvement by the American public. Piece Process is an affirmation in support of all the Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, who seek a just and humane existence.”
Participating artists include Granite Amit, Doris Bittar, Rajie Cook, Abdelali Dahrouch, Joyce Dallal, Hanah Diab, Michele Feder-Nadoff, John Halaka, Kanaan Kanaan, John Pitman-Weber, Jenny Polak and Amie Potsic.
Also on view: contemporary Iraqi art from the gallery collection. Catalogue available.
The gallery is supported in part by the Oded Halahmy Foundation for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit cultural organization created to fund original artistic expressions that will promote a greater cultural understanding of the Middle East, thereby fostering peace and hope around the world. The Foundation has already supported a number of Middle Eastern writers and poets by bringing their translated books to the American audience.
Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Artists currently featured include Dia Al-Azzawi, Farah Nosh, Ismail Khayat, Hana Mal-Allah, Hayder Ali, Qasim Sabti, Mohammed Al-Shammarey, Nazar Yahya, Ghassan Ghayeb, Esam Pasha, Amar Dawod, Hassan Massoudy, Delair Shaker, Amal Alwan, Naziha Rashid, and Oded Halahmy.